Software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) business models have seen a steady rise in the past few years, especially in the realm of enterprise software companies. SaaS refers to a business model in which software may be licensed to one or more business customers on a subscription basis or some other type of payment model and is typically centrally hosted in the cloud. SaaS is typically accessed by a user through a web browser. One of the chief advantages of using SaaS business models is that the burden and cost related to IT maintenance and support is removed or minimized for the business, and instead placed on the SaaS provider (e.g., Oracle Inc., etc.) instead.
By using SaaS platforms, businesses can access and interact with a software service (e.g., a business application, enterprise software, etc.) on the cloud via a remote server, and manage large amounts of data for the enterprise through the SaaS enterprise SaaS service on a subscription basis (i.e., without having to invest in significant costs related to data infrastructure, management, etc.). One such enterprise software solution is offered by Oracle, Inc., (e.g., Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (“OTBI”)). Such an enterprise software platform allows users a comprehensive Business Intelligence tool to manage a set of data related to the user (e.g., business account), provide analytics based on the set of data, and provide different ways of creating business reports, among other capabilities. In the context of enterprise software, one key functionality relates to visualization of multiple data sources in an integrated platform, thereby making it easier for users to interact with the data and analyze the data in a meaningful manner.
SaaS customers typically use several different SaaS platforms to interact with different datasets. Although the different data providers behind these different SaaS platforms attempt to have all-include datasets, none of these SaaS platforms is able to provide all-inclusive datasets because the data originates and is maintained by various providers as a result of particular expertise, insight, or access, manifested through particular data collection and management processes, by the respective provider. As a result, customers may use multiple SaaS platforms, each corresponding to a different provider to gain a deeper understanding as they analyze data. Thus, there is a need for an improved integrated enterprise SaaS platform.